


Caught

by prrincessyue



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-15 09:20:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11803122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prrincessyue/pseuds/prrincessyue
Summary: Katara's a mermaid and she keeps getting caught in Zuko's net.Katara's also dealing with the fact that her mom got captured. And Zuko, well, even in a Merpeople AU he's still trying to restore his honour.





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

> The title of this is 110% most certainly gonna change

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol I already basically posted this as a separate thing yikes you should read the next chapter

Katara was moving faster than anything known to mankind. Faster than the speed of light, the wind, than time itself. It was second nature to her, so simple, to move that fast. She was built for it, after all.

The salt didn't sting her eyes but instead tickled her senses; her webbed ears, closed nose, the gills on either side of her neck. The Ocean was coursing through her veins, a part of her, just as it always had been. But it was also all around her, lifting her long, silky hair in full chesnut blooms, and seeping into her even more so than before; more of it became a part of her everyday.

It had always been kind to her, gentle, and she felt nothing but something softer than air. It helped her, in a way, do what she did. The Ocean and her glorious tail.

Her tail -- oh, her tail. Firm, hardly fingernail-sized scales stretched out below her torso, each one glistening different shades of blue; azure, persian, lapis, arctic, teal. They knit together, molding like intricate puzzle pieces into one, sturdy shape; a long shaft breaking off into new scales, which were stretched thin as paper and floating together into whimsical fins, two vaguely heart shaped wings. They streamed down and mingled with the tattered ends, translucent scales doing an ethereal dance.

All together, her tail shimmered cobalt againsted caramel skin, the light through the water hitting it in just the right ways to highlight sapphire sections. Katara's tail was gorgeous, carefully crafted. It was even more so than any other Merperson's she knew, the way it almost glowed setting her apart.

And how strong it was, beating the water with the force that propelled her, but still so graceful. It was only the lower part of her body, and yet it was all of her.

With each beat of that magnificent thing she was moving faster, faster, _flying_ through the sea, and yet it still felt like nothing to her.

She would never understand how impossible this life, her whole existence, was to so many.


	2. Caught

Katara wasn't going anywhere in particular. She was just swimming, passing country after country, and feeling the change of the waters around her and the freedom that came with it - until something caught her eye. She tried to stop as quickly as she'd been swimming, but a Mermaid's reflexes aren't quite as impressive as her velocity. As she lazily circled back to what she had seen, Katara noticed that the atmosphere was now icy-cold, though it didn't affect her. Her sense of direction told her that she was around the South Pole.

When she finally drifted close enough so her eyes could find it again, her heart broke a little. The sight of a baby Tiger Seal struggling in a net only made her want to reach out, help it; but flashes of certain memories kept her firmly in her place.

 _A trapped arm, her own young cries, her mother's urgent and then calming voice. Her eyes on her mother's one last time_.

Suspended in the water, Katara could only watch, bringing her hand to the braided fishing string and engraved shell hanging around her neck - her mother's necklace. The string was dyed light blue, the same colour that was swirled in with the white shell, shaved down to a flat, circular pendant. She rubbed the necklace, trying not to remember her mother's touch as she gave it to her, while also not wanting to let go of her last reminiscence of her mother; of her warm hands and reassuring smile -

A sudden heaviness, thick ropes. No way out.

Katara had been caught.

She cursed herself - how could this be happening? - and thrashed violently in her prison, while at the same time a strange sense of calm settled over her. She had always wondered what happened to those caught in the nets, her curiosity turning constant - and guilty - ever since that day with her mother. It was the reason that she always stopped to watch in horror but also, admittedly, awe, as unfortunate creatures twisted and withered, trying desperately to find a way out of the nets. They floated ever so slowly and leisurely towards the surface, making the whole thing seem a little hazy.

She wondered where the creatures went, and about the people sending the traps into her home; she knew that they were humans, but that didn't really mean anything at all, did it? Except that humans were _awful_.At least now everything she needed to know would be answered.

The pull of the net towards the surface calmed her, her terror muted and disengaged just as much as when she watched. Even still, she was fully ready to scream and shout at whichever monster was up there waiting for her, her mind already screaming as her fists balled up and her tail twitched.

"You humans are awful, you know that!?" Her brain demanded.

"Do you just terrorize other's homes for fun!?" Her concious cried. 

" _You took my mother from me."_ Her heart wrenched.

As soon as Katara broke the surface she lost her ability to speak, the dazzling sunlight blinding her and her gills being attacked by the frigid air. She shivered, feeling so much more uncomfortable - but even more so, trapped and _useless_ \- than she thought she would. She didn't come out of the water angry and defiant like she had planned, but instead flopped down onto the ship's metal surface, a soggy mess, as soon as she was yanked aboard. She could barely make out alarmed hands working to untangle her from the net, hardly heard the shouts of a whole crew, before limply passing out. 

* * *

When her eyes fluttered open, her head was throbbing. At the sound of her awakening - the strangled cough, which was something she'd never done before, and the instinctive smack of her tail as she tried to get away - a boy, a human, had bolted into action. He was staring down at her in a flash.

Katara didn't once forget where she was, and despite still feeling at the weakest she'd ever been physically, the passionate anger had had plenty of time to manifest and build up inside of her once again. She was ready to release it, hear sharp words tumble from her mouth- but again, they wouldn't come. Wonder and fury fought inside her as she peered up at the first human she'd ever seen, and as much as she didn't want it to, wonder won out.

She was in a trance, of sorts. He looked so familiar and yet different at the same time. She learned that humans didn't look too different than merpeople but that you could never mistake the two.

She learned that they had porcelain skin, sharp jaw lines and pointed chins. That their ears were round, nothing special, and their noses permanently open. Their eyes were piercing. They were amber, golden, and unmoving from Katara. The left one was squinting, unable to open further.

Did all humans have crimson and salmon ringed around an eye, the reds layered like the blues in her tail? She wondered if they all just had one patch of dark hair pulled up into a ponytail in the midst of a round, bald head, and if they all wore their lips in what seemed to be a permanent frown.

She coughed again- or was it a choke?- and swallowed, slowly recalling everything she wanted to say to him and his crew. Although her brows arched downwards and her insides burned, she couldn't do anything but wonder if he was studying her in astonishment just as she'd been studying him.

Taking in a mermaid's tail and ears and fingers webbed with fins for the first time. Regarding her thick lustrous hair and the ocean that was in her blue eyes and her smooth, tan skin. She didn't know to cover her breasts with flushed cheeks like a human would, or that he'd think a tail was far more magnificent than legs.

His _legs_. She couldn't believe she hadn't noticed them before, but there they were; the fabled legs that humans had. Nothing like a tail, more like another set of arms but stronger. She couldn't even fathom what using them to stand, let alone walk, was like.

Katara tore her eyes away from them and looked into his face again, forcing herself to think: _This is a human. He does awful things. This is the face of the enemy_. Even as it all clicked into place again, she could only hope that she wouldn't end up asking him to demonstrate with his legs when she opened her mouth. And then, before anything could even come out at all, the human spoke. "I'm sorry."

She blinked. That was the last thing she'd expected him to say, and in response she did the last she expected herself to do. She realized that those alarmed hands from earlier had freed her from the ropes as her left arm floated up beyond her control, reached for his left eye. The boys hand was there faster than she could swim, snatching her wrist and moving it away from his eye. "Who do you think you are?" he snapped.

That did it for Katara. Finally, whatever spell she was under broke, and she didn't miss a beat. "Who do I think I am?" She retorted, her voice going too high. "You're the one who caught me in a net and dragged me out of my home, and you've no doubt done it to countless other merpeople before!" It had been ridiculous to think that she was the first merperson he'd seen, after all.

The boy had started walking away, but at that he paused. Keeping his back to her, his voice softened the smallest bit. "I've never- you're the first merperson i've ever seen. I can't believe you're _real_." The last word lifted in awe.

That shut Katara up long enough for him to turn sour again, "I can't imagine you've seen other humans either. That's probably why you think it's ok to go around touching other people's scars."

Katara's tail flicked as she recoiled and shot back, "I _have_ seen other humans, actually." Even though she hadn't, and that's exactly why she didn't know it was a scar and was so eager to touch it. "And here I thought you were just disgusted by my mermaid hands," she added bitterly, leaning back on the same one that she'd used to get in his personal space.

"And here I thought mermaids would be a whole lot nicer," he turned around and sighed. Rolled his eyes. "Look, I didn't mean to catch you, I didn't even know you existed! I'm sorry, ok? Don't take it so personally." Everything he said was lined with agitation.

Katara exploded. "Don't- what did you just say? Oh, you can bet your entitled ass it's _personal_. If you're oh-so-sorry and didn't mean to why did you keep me here!? why didn't you let me go right away!?" Her arms were waving wildly, and she scooted closer to him to get in his face.

He threw up his own arms and cried, "Because we were shocked! And you passed out right away, we couldn't just throw you back in!"

"Well thanks for your concern," Katara grumbled, scooting over to hang her tail over the edge of the ship, ready to dive away. "I'll just swim all the way back to where I came from."

The boy pinched the bridge of his nose and glared at her, "You were only out for 3 hours, we're not that far. I thought mermaids could swim super fast."

He was right, ofcourse, but Katara needed a reason to attack him. "That doesn't mean we don't get tired!" She scowled.

"Okay!" He cried, ripping his hand away from his nose. "I don't have the time to take you back."

"Oh no, I don't want to spend anymore time on this ship."

Their eyes met. "I'm really sorry," he said, still sounding a little annoyed but not quite as temperamental.

For some reason Katara thought that, at least about that, he was being sincere. She pursed her lips and nodded.

And then she was back in the water, feeling instantly better. She didn't know why she felt the need to do it, maybe to show the boy that she wasn't as weak in water as she was on land, but as she swam away she propelled herself out of the water just to dive back in like a dolphin. Her body arched perfectly as she was suspended in the air for a moment, and the light and water made her tail and even hair and skin shimmer in a million different ways before she disappeared back into the Sea again.

* * *

Back on the ship, now miles away, Prince Zuko stared out at where she'd been. He heard footsteps approach him, and a hand rested on his shoulder.

"Nephew. You did the right thing, letting her go." His uncle told him.

"You convinced me that my Father would not appreciate it enough to restore my honour, if I captured her," He replied, slowly and articulately. "It was only the right thing to do, if that's true."

He found himself hoping that she didn't somehow hear that.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
